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POLITICO 44

Democrats and Republicans have been putting their constitutional philosophies on display. The confirmation hearings left us no wiser about Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s constitutional outlook, but the senators’ statements told us that Republicans have a bolder and clearer constitutional philosophy than Democrats.

The Democrats often seemed to deny they had a philosophy at all. They want to hold onto (what’s left of) the liberal constitutional achievements of the past. But that’s no substitute for a broad account of what the Constitution stands for today and how they want constitutional law to develop over the next couple of decades. During moments like this one, Democrats need to light the path for the court and the nation. They should bring to the fore the president’s (admittedly understated but rich and promising) constitutional outlook and rhetoric. There is more there than “empathy.”

For their part, Republicans continue to have it both ways. They are the party of “original intent” and support restoring the Constitution to what the framers and “we, the people” had in mind before liberal “judicial activists” made a hash of it. This, Sen. Jeff Sessions proclaims, is what it means to be an impartial judge who applies the law as it is, without bias or favor.

Yet this “conservative” constitutional outlook also makes the GOP the party of constitutional change and dynamism. It offers a mobilizing vision of restoring personal responsibility, private property and godliness, and of an end to state-sponsored racial engineering and abortions, an end to secreting foreign law into our constitutional order and so on — all of which requires overturning precedents, striking down statutes, and “activism” dressed up as restoration. And all of which supplies loyal Republican judges like Chief Justice John Roberts with a background narrative to guide and justify interpretation and shape doctrine.

To their credit, several Democratic senators offered a more sophisticated account of what judges actually do. They must follow the rules laid down and also interpret the open-ended phrases of the Constitution (and of statutes and even of past precedents) in ways that inevitably make law, as well as simply apply law. If judging were just “calling balls and strikes,” it wouldn’t matter so much who the umpires are.

Yet, while Democrats are the ones being candid about judicial lawmaking, they are also calling most loudly for the court to abide by precedents. They acknowledge that judges must make new law but complain about the court’s galloping “activism,” because the conservative justices have been hacking away at cherished liberal precedents.

Democrats need to proclaim a broader constitutional philosophy. They could start by staking out a clear alternative to the phony “conservative” notion that keeping faith with the Constitution means asking what the framers thought about school integration or women or gays in the military. They could affirm that the Constitution is a work in progress, transformed by the Civil War and Reconstruction and later amendments and volumes of judge-made law before all Americans were legally free or equal. They could echo the president, who repeatedly reminds us that the Constitution’s “more perfect union” remains unfinished. Democratic senators also could stand by the president in affirming that our constitutional development should include learning from the experience of other constitutional democracies.

You Dimarat Libitards Just need to READ it and HEED it! But then again, You are a product of YOUR Educational System, Most of you can't read beyond " Fun with Dick and Jane" if that! You Have Perverted it as you have MOST everything you get your Greasy paws on!

Hello! I want what Forbass is smoking if its legal. Bush and Dick pretty much demonstrated the GOP's standing philosophy on the Constitution- burn it and scatter the ashes over Wall Street while ****ing on the flag and/or the corpse of a dead soldier. Preferably one that's been electrocuted (at a fine profit!) by Halliburton.

I find it hilarious that every time the statist President nominates a statist judge to be confirmed by the statist Senate, everyone and their mother appeals to the Constitution! In actual fact, enforcement of the Constitution was murdered by Andrew Jackson during the Nullification Crisis. The Constitution itself was bludgeoned to death by Abraham Lincoln. Since that time, we have been living at the whim of power-mad politicians, and do-gooders who think the world can actually be improved by shooting and caging people, or threatening to do so.

In the words of Lysander Spooner, "Either the Constitution has authorized such a government as we now have, or it is powerless to stop it. In either case, it is unfit to exist."

There is no real turning point coming in the Untied States same old tired politics we have suffered from for 30 years from both Political Parties ! Read Your History Books!

The Real Pirates and Crooks Are All The Politicians In Our Federal Government. We The People Of These Untied States Of America Need To Limit The Government's Powers Before The Government Limits Our Power.

YOU POLITICIANS ARE ALL FIRED IN MY BOOK ! WE WANT THE IMPEACHMENT OF ALL FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS IN THE U S CONGRESS . WE SHOULD DO WHAT MARTIN LUTHER KING DID MARCH ON WASHINGTON DC..... THAT WOULD BE OUR TURNING POINT FOR AMERICAN HISTORY BOOKS TAKE BACK OUR COUNTRY! WE THE PEOPLE NEED TO TELL THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WHAT TO DO, NOT THEM TELLING US WHAT TO DO!

WE'VE GOT TO STAND TOGETHER OR WE WILL FALL FOR ANYTHING, WE THE PEOPLE HAVE TO PUT A STOP TO OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT NOW ! THERE IS NO CHANGE COMING WE THE PEOPLE WERE FOOLED AGAIN!

To All Politicians, Don't Bit The Hands That VOTED FOR YOU !!

(SUJBECT AT HAND THE U S CONGRESS IF YOU BUNCH CANT FIX THE PROBLEM OF OUR HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL LEAVE THE CHAIR WE DONT NEED YOU ANYMORE.)

WE DONT WANT MANDATORY HEALTH CARE INSURANCE PLAN!!!

WE DONT WANT MANDATORY HEALTH CARE INSURANCE PLAN!!!

IF YOU CANT FIX HEALTH CARE IN THE UNTIED STATES RETIREMENT IS YOUR NEXT STEP LEAVE WITH OUR THANK'S FOR NOTHING FROM THE PEOPLE OF THE UNTIED STATES OF AMERICA.

DONT YOU DARE INCREASE OUR TAXES TO PAY FOR IT EITHER!!!

THERE IS A LOT OF WASTEFUL SPENDING IN WASHINGTON DC CALLED ( PORKBARREL)!

First of all, Brandett, the solutions to our problems are not political, because, believe it or not, our problems are not, at their root, political. They are philosophical. Americans, like most people throughout history, have embraced two patently false ideas: First, that government (a coercive monopoly of the initiation of force in a certain geographic area) is necessary. Not only do we not need government, government is itself evil and the source of most evils on this planet. Second, we have embraced the idea that the property of someone else can be justifiably taken away from him and given to a third party. This is the essence of theft. It is also the essence of taxation. Taxation (which is simply theft plus paperwork) is necessary to support government. When people allow a government to rule them, such a government is invariably based on theft (taxation) and uses lies to cover this up, and violence to enforce its taxation. Any group based upon theft, lies and violence will only appeal to those who are wicked at heart. And only the truly sociopathic will be good at it and attain positions of power.

Limiting a government won't work because NO government can ever be limited for long, for the liars, theives and murderers attracted to it will quickly find a route around any limitations put upon them.

The solution is not to limit federal government; it is to ELIMINATE federal government. Also state, and local government as well. (Note: that this can be done both legally and non-violently)

Obama has also talked about the social contract from time to time. Feral capitalism would like for everyone to buy in to a social contract that would permit individuals to behave in a parasitical way, taking all they could get from other members of society on the theory that "that's just part of the deal." A clear understanding that nobody is obligated to accept this "activist" social contract would put U.S. citizens in a much better position to understand both the history of the formulation of the Constitution and to form a clearer vision regarding its future.

Obama has also talked about the social contract from time to time. Feral capitalism would like for everyone to buy in to a social contract that would permit individuals to behave in a parasitical way, taking all they could get from other members of society on the theory that "that's just part of the deal." A clear understanding that nobody is obligated to accept this "activist" social contract would put U.S. citizens in a much better position to understand both the history of the formulation of the Constitution and to form a clearer vision regarding its future.